


Left to Sift Through The Ashes

by prinnxe0



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Asshole Luther Hargreeves, Confused Allison Hargreeves, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Good Brother Diego Hargreeves, Good Brother Klaus Hargreeves, Good Sister Vanya Hargreeves, Number 8!Reader, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Protective Klaus Hargreeves, Protective Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy), Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Slow To Update, Transgender Diego Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-06 11:44:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18387788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prinnxe0/pseuds/prinnxe0
Summary: CONTAINS EXPLCIT DESCRIPTION OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT.On the twelfth hour  of the first day of October, 1989, forty-three women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began.Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible. He got eight.Number Eight!Reader with mind reading/control and extreme kinaekinesis (body control).Gender neutral pronouns.





	1. I Don't Want A Name

* * *

And now here we all are. Well... eight out of the eleven of us. And it only took good ol' Reggie kicking the bucket for us to finally get together again.

We're still missing two people, but... well, you know. It's good to see them all here. I can still remember the last time all of us were in the same room.

 

 

☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂

 

 

_"Children, correct your posture. Stand straight. Shoulders back. Chins high." Hargreeves barked out, and we all jumped to attention. I squeezed Seven's hand reassuringly, and I felt her squeeze back before releasing my hand as Pogo counted down behind the camera. We were all blinded by the flash and left blinking after the puff of smoke from the camera; Hargreeves always insisted on doing things 'the old fashioned way'. That included photos, too._

_Mom smiled at us all, but her smile slightly faded as Hargreeves marched out of the room, as if he had better things to do._

_She ushered us all into the sitting room, and we all collapsed on each other and on the assorted sofas and love seats; Six and Four and Seven sprawled on the big sofa, Three and One curled up in a love seat, Two perched next to Mom on a sofa, and Five sat next to me on the other love seat. Pogo stood behind Mom and Two, resting a hand on Two's shoulder almost paternally._

_Mom gently called for our attention, and we went silent. With the exception of One, every one of us respected Mom more than Hargreeves._  
_"Children, Pogo and I have gifts for you."_

_Everyone perked up at that._

_"Pogo and I have agreed that it is best for morale and for personal identity development that you have names."_

_Five cocked his head. "We already have names. I am Five. They--" He points to me, "--are Eight. She is Three. He--"_

_Mom cut him off. "No, no. As in ordinary names. Ones that normal children may have."_

_Five narrowed his eyes but leaned back into my side. I rested my head on his shoulder as a connection to calm him down, and thankfully, my voices partially disappeared too._

_Mom's eyes seemed distant as she turned to look at One. "Number One, Pogo chose for you to be named Luther. Luther is a name frequent in ideological leaders, and it has its roots back to Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation."_

_Luther nodded solemnly, accepting his title, before breaking into a grin._

_Mom turned to Two, and a genuine smile made its way onto her face. "Number Two, I selected the name Diego for you. Diego is a common name in your biological mother's home country of Mexico."_

_Diego smiled adoringly at Mom. "Th-Thanks, Mom." Then he turned and began mouthing the name, again and again until he seemed comfortable with the word._

_"Mistress Three?" Pogo got The Rumor's attention. "For you, I have chosen the name Allison, which is a name that refers to nobility and honor._

_Allison nodded, smiling before turning to Luther and high-fiving him._

_"Number Four, I haven't quite decided on a name for you yet; would you like a say?"_

_Four nodded._

_"Would you prefer Klaus or Charles?"_

_After a short moment of deliberation, Four answers, "Klaus."_

_Mom simply smiled and nodded. "Klaus it is."_

_"Number Five, I give you Edwar--"_

_"I don't want a name." Five crossed his arms and tucked his legs up next to mine. I rolled my eyes affectionately, but I scooched my legs over to make room for him._

_After Pogo and Mom shared a look, the kind-hearted ape nodded. "Very well, Master Five."_

_"Master Six, for your trustworthiness and devotion to your siblings, we give you the name Benjamin."_

_Ben glanced up from his book for a split-second to share a dazzling smile with us. "Thanks, Pogo."_

_"Number Seven, in order to honor your heritage as well, I have selected the name Vanya, a Russian name referring to your graciousness."_

_I saw Pogo's nose twitch; his tell. That's not all that 'Vanya' meant._

_"Number Eight."_

_I looked up, wincing a bit as the voices seeped back into my head. Five linked our fingers together, the contact helping to keep them at bay. "Yes?"_

_"For you, for your strength and knowledge, we have chosen the name ~~Y/n~~."_

_I nodded, smiling a tight-lipped smile at Mom and Pogo before laying my head back down on Five and breathing a sigh of relief._

_"Alright then. Go on. You may spend the remainder of the hour doing whatever you like."_

_Luther and Allison jumped up and bolted out of the room, shortly followed by Diego and Vanya wandering out to spar (as they often did)._

_Ben and Klaus stayed where they were, Klaus laying half in Ben's lap as he blasted his music through his earbuds, and Ben read Aristotle's Politics. (Nerd.)_

_The four of us fell into an amicable silence, only to be broken a few minutes later by Five, who nudged my knee with his before, "Hey,"_

_"Hey," I parroted._

_"...even though I think that this name thing is complete bullshit, I like your name."_

_I smile at him. "Thanks, bub."_

_I could hear Ben and Klaus, in sync, think, **'Get a room.'**_

_I extended an arm from the tangle of limbs with a single ring-clad finger pointed towards the sky, projecting a thought at them. **'Go away, boys.'** _

_"Still not used to that..." Ben muttered as he pulled Klaus up and they strode out of the sitting room._

_"Dumbasses." Five and I said simultaneously before exploding into laughter._


	2. Never Got The Chance To

Yeah, being all together is nice.

But I really do miss Five. He kinda fucked me over when he ditched - I stopped growing the day that he disappeared.

Nobody could figure out why; not Hargreeves (not that he tried), not Grace, not Pogo, not even Ben and his freaky big brain. The best they could come up with is that my emotional reliance on Five before he disappeared became a physical reliance. His disappearance would've caused a lack of energy from him, and my body took the energy appropriated for growth and moved it towards mental functioning.

But here I am, sixteen years later, far more in control of my powers, yet still in the body of a thirteen-year-old.  
Dammit, Five.

 

☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂

 

_Five heaved me out of my bed, making sure to hold onto my hand._

_"_ _C'mon, you gotta practice so that Hargreeves goes easier on you next time." There was a glint of concern behind his big green eyes._

_I grumbled but allowed Five to stand me up._

_"Ready?" He asked, grimacing a bit._

_I nodded and braced myself. I felt him slowly let go, but it's only a split-second before the dam in my mind crumbles, and a flood of noise smashes into my brain; voices and sounds from god-knows-how-many blocks surrounding us._

_"Breathe." I heard above the racket._

_I sucked in a huge breath before blowing it out quickly. "There's so many..." I whimpered._

_"Narrow it down." Five's voice cut through the darkness like a knife. "Just our block, how's that?"_

_I nodded, renewed energy powering me. Eleven signatures; I could do that._

_I pared it down to all the people I recognised, which made up about three blocks' worth of people. I cut out our neighbors and the workers at Griddy's until I only had eleven signatures floating around in my head._

_I opened my eyes to see a flash of pride on Five's face. He quickly dropped his blank mask into place before I heard him ask, "Let's try something else, yeah? Tell me a snippet about what everyone else is thinking?"_

_I nodded and my eyes fell shut._

_"Let's start with Luther."_

_My face wrinkled up in disgust. "Something creepily romantic about Allison that I refuse to repeat."_

_Five fake-retched, and I could hear the sarcastic grin on his face when he asked, "What about Allison?"_

_"She's dead asleep, not even dreaming right now."_

_"Okay, then... Diego?"_

_"He's wondering what's for dinner."_

_"Isn't he sparring with Vanya?"_

_I opened one eye. "You think that's stopping him?"_

_He rolled his eyes. "Fair point. And V?"_

_"She's focussed on beating Diego. And humming Think of Me."_

_Five chuckled. "Ben and Klaus?"_

_"Klaus is singing some My Chemical Romance song, and Ben is reading something... ugh, boring."_

_He huffed out a laugh, before his voice became quiet. "Mom?"_

_I opened my eyes and shook my head. "You know I can't read her or Pogo. They're just blank tones."_

_He sighed, but I knew he wasn't really disappointed. "Hargreeves?"_

_I closed my eyes. "Something in French about the Eiffel Tower..."_

_"And me?"_

_I focussed, but to no avail. After a few minutes of attempting again and again, I shook my head and opened my eyes. "Still no."_

_"Oh well." Five shrugged and nudged me with his shoulder. "Hey, I'm proud of you. You did well."_

_Even though I did do better than usual, it still annoyed me that I was unable to read Five, even though I could influence him. Not that I wanted to, necessarily, but he was an unknown variable, and it was constantly in the back of my head that I had to figure it out; figure him out._

 

_I never got the chance to._


	3. As Long As It's Him

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Luther's music taste - for the most part, he chooses good (or decent) music - but then occasionally, he'll unironically play shit like Rick Astley's entire discography.

This is, luckily, one of the former times.

When the opening drumline of Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now comes drifting down the stairwell and into my room, I smile a little. It was reminiscent of our more innocent years, and I could tell that everyone else was enjoying the music too. I slowly begin to dance to the song, exiting my room eventually and dancing up and down the hallway, singing my heart out.

 

Suddenly, I feel myself pitch forward and I quickly grab onto the railing on the wall as the house seems to go ninety degrees of sideways.

I catch a bright blue flash of light from outside the window of Five's old room, and that split-second of a visual has me dropping down the hallway, landing on the wall below, and bursting outside (where gravity is normal for some reason).

That blue can only be found with Five. Trust me, I've searched high and how for something like it. No color is as vibrant or as shocking as the one making up the giant ball of energy floating eight feet off the ground. 

My other five siblings rush out behind me, and I laugh confusedly as Klaus throws a fire extinguisher into it. 

We see the face of an old man being distorted and misshapen in the spiralling of the light.

The ball of light gets bigger and louder; I vaguely hear Luther call it a "temporal anomaly", and I feel a little more sure of my assumption.

Luther and Diego try to pull me behind them, but I twist out of Diego's grip and shove Luther away, knowing that any second, Five will come back, and we'll be okay again.

We'll have all of us back together.

Suddenly, everything goes quiets. Then the ball of energy collapses and a heap of fabric and human crashed to the ground. I rush to the person, and (if only to silence the little bit of doubt in the back of my mind) I move the fabric out of their face, and sure enough, it's Five, but... still thirteen?

Oh well, as long as it's him.

 

☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂

 

I scoop him up into my arms, and suddenly that blissful silence that I haven't felt in sixteen years fills my mind and I smile dopily, earning extremely worried looks from my siblings.

As soon as we're inside, Five splayed across me on the couch in the sitting room, Diego is yelling at Klaus and gesturing at me. "What the f-fuck, Klaus?! Did you d-dr-drug them or what? Why are they a-acting like this?"

Klaus smiles knowingly at me, ignoring Diego for now. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

I nod, a tear of bliss tracking down my cheek.

Klaus turns to Diego, who is shaking with rage. "I did not drug them, D. I swear on Ben's grave, I did not." 

Everyone in the room looks taken aback.

"Do you all remember how close Five and ~~Y/n~~ were when we were younger?"

Allison, the only one with any sort of wherewithal to answer, responds, "Yeah...?"

Klaus speaks to them as if they're all five years old. "And what's ~~Y/n~~ 's power?"

"...Hearing thoughts?"

Klaus nods, and I'm glad that he's willing to explain this, because I probably don't have the emotional capacity to explain this right now. "They're acting dopey because for some unknown reason, physical contact, particularly with this..." he points at Five, "ray of sunshine..." He grimaces. "...silences the voices in their head." He pauses. Then, almost inaudibly, "It's like me with the drugs. It's how I keep them away."

I reach for his legs, the only part of him that I can reach with one arm; a thank you for explaining my current dilemna. Klaus pats my head twice before turning and slapping Five fully across the face, very effectively waking him up.

The sitting room erupts, half indignant yelling, half laughter. 

Five's eyes flew open, and he cried out happily. "It worked! It really--" He looks down at his body, only to see a thirteen-year-old, not a twenty-nine-year-old. "--worked." He paused. "Oh." He blinks a couple times. "Well, it would seem Dolores was right. The equations were off." He turns his attention to the occupants of the room. "Hello, family." He smiles at me before momentarily jumping away.

I hear rattling coming from various places throughout the house before Five is back next to me, arm slung around my shoulders.

"Who do I have to kill for a cup of coffee?" No one answers. "An entire square block of a house, and no coffee anywhere in it?"

I throw a thought at him as Allison responds to him. **'I've got some Blue Mountain upstairs. I'll make some for us once everyone's gone.'**

He sighs and smiles gratefully at me, completely ignoring the argument between Allison and Klaus that he just started as he kisses the back of my hand affectionately.

He turns to everyone else. "Has Hargreeves kicked the bucket yet?"

"You know about that?" Luther asks stupidly.

Five shoots him a 'what the fuck' look. "What part of the future don't you understand?"

Klaus pipes up, far too jovial, attempting to cut off a fight. "He has!"

"Then why are we in here? Don't we have to have some sort of funeral or something?"

"Very well, Master Five." Pogo greets Five in the way that only Pogo can. "I agree with Master Five. Our purpose was to gather to wish Sir Hargreeves goodbye. We ought to go do so."


	4. [Twin, Fraternal]

I roll my eyes at Luther and Diego tumbling on the ground.

"Dumbasses," Five and I say in unison before turning to each other in awe-filled happiness.

"God, I missed you." Five exclaims, and I feel the familiar tug on my hand that occurs when Five jumps us together. I quickly brace myself for the trip through the inky blackness of the Between, and then suddenly, jarringly, we land on my bed, bouncing slightly.

Five rolls onto his stomach. "So, where's the coffee, dorky?"

I laugh and elbow him in the side, getting up and opening my closet. "I knew you were only using me for my beans," I joke, digging through my drawer. I pull out an unopened half pound of coffee and toss it over my shoulder at him. 

He catches it, opens it, and groans appreciatively at the smell. "You know you're my favorite, right?"

I grin. "I'm sure you say that to all the baristas too."

He playfully punches me in the shoulder, laughing at me. "Shut up!"

 

☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂

 

We sneak down to the kitchen and steal Five's French press, giggling as we shush each other on the way back. We don't jump, as Five's exhausted; plus, it's nice to do something normally.

I turn on my electric kettle (I make tea when I'm stressed, okay?) and we wait.

Once the kettle clicks, signaling that it's done, Five shakes some of the the coffee grounds into the bottom of the French press, pouring hot water over them. 

I stand and open a cabinet to pull out two mugs as we wait for the coffee to finish brewing.

"You can control the voices more, can't you?" But it really wasn't much of a question.

"Yeah. I'm better at a lot of things." I shrug. "Had to get better. Couldn't leave the Academy; I looked like a thirteen-year-old. Hargreeves kept training me after you left. All sixteen years."

Five looks guiltily at me as I sit down and hand him a Star Trek mug. "I'm sorry."

I shrug again. "It's okay. I learned about more abilities than I thought possible. I can levitate, apparently, and I can mirage myself too. Those are the two main ones I know about."

He presses the coffee and pours it into our mugs, careful not to splash it on my white carpet. Once he's done, he reaches across the gap between us and grasps my hand. "I really am sorry that I wasn't here."

I shrug and give him a melancholy smile. "It's alright. You made a mistake. We all made our own."

There are a few moments of silence as we sip our coffee.

"Hey, even though you don't need it, can we..." He trails off.

I raise an eyebrow at him, prompting him to continue.

"Can we still hold hands and stuff?"

I grin. "Of course."

He grins, but attempts to hide it behind his mug. After realising that his mug is empty, he thinks for a moment before grinning maniacally.

"Wanna raid Hargreeves' office?"

I laugh. "Yes!" I throw back the remainder of my coffee and he drags me out of the room, both of us giggling like madmen.

 

☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂

 

Once we get to Hargreeves' door, Five jumps inside and opens it from the inside, ushering me in. "M'they-dy,"

I laugh loudly, making him giggle and shush me.

As I'm bent over, gasping for breath, I see a red book sitting inside of an otherwise empty trash bin.

I pull it out of the bin and flip it over to the other side. 

I suck in a quick breathe at the two gold letters engraved in the leather: **'RH'**.

I whistle lowly, knowing that I just hit the jackpot. Five, who is investigating the cabinets behind Hargreeves' desk, turns around to look at me.

"What?"

I flip through the book-- no, journal. "I maayyyy have just found Daddy Dearest's diary..."

Five runs over to me, bouncing like an excited three year old.

I keep flipping through it, ignoring Five's grumbling when I don't show him. 

It seems Hargreeves had a section of his 'experiment journal' devoted to each of us; because naturally, children are experiments.

I flip past everyone else's reports and go to mine at the back of the journal. 

> January ninth, two-thousand and nineteen.  
>  After twenty-nine years and seventeen days of observation, I have placed Number Eight as second most powerful of the Academy. Number Eight has fully withdrawn from me, miraging itself from me whenever I attempt to retrieve it for training. Without Number Eight's twin, it appears it has sunk further into its depression.

I stare, not believing my eyes. 

Five's excited smile turns into a worried frown. "What is it?" He moves toward me. " ~~Y/n~~?" He touches my arm and I flinch away, throwing up my mirages. 

I breathe heavily, my fingers automatically flipping through the journal, frantically searching for any information on who my twin is. 

It's not long before I arrive at the beginning of the journal. I quickly find a list entitled, "Acquisitions (by presumed power)". I pour all the focus I can into reading the list, not realising that my mirages are fading in the process. 

> 1\. English male acquired from London, England  
>  2\. Mexican female acquired from La Paz, Mexico  
>  3\. African-American female acquired from Seattle, United States  
>  4\. Irish male acquired from Cork, Ireland  
>  5\. Canadian male [twin, fraternal] acquired from Marquette, Canada  
>  6\. Korean male acquired from Boseong, Korea  
>  7\. Russian female acquired from Bratsk, Russia  
>  8\. Canadian intersex infant [twin, fraternal] acquired from Marquette, Canada

My flying thoughts are halted by Five's voice. "We're twins?!"

 

Then everything goes black.


	5. You Can’t Shut Me Out, Either

I wake up in my own bed with an arm draped across my stomach. I freeze before realising that is Five passed out on my trundle... in stolen pajamas.

And for a split second I relive the joy of Five coming back.

Then I start to wonder how the hell I got back to my room.

I do a quick scan of the house to see who is awake; Klaus and... okay, only Klaus.

I quickly send him a string of thoughts, knowing that he'll probably know the answers.   **'What happened last night?'  'Why is Five sleeping in my room?'  'How did I get back here?'**

I feel him absorb them, and I hear the padding of bare feet coming down the hallway before I see his head poke in the doorway to my room.

"After you found something shocking out, bastard refused to say what, you had a full-blown panic attack, and apparently Five completely forgot how to calm you down during his forty-five years of being gone, so I was left to calm you down." He shrugs. "Anyway, V and I were the only ones in the house who gave enough damns to see what the stress call was about." He's about to leave before he remembers something. "Oh, and Five refused to leave you alone, by the way. Insisted that you needed the comfort."

I smile a little at that last bit. "Thanks, Klaus." I croak out. 

"No problem!" He winks, blows me a kiss, and skips away, tugging the door shut behind him. 

I chuckle a little at Klaus before sobering at the though of last night's discovery. I tuck myself into Five's open arms, needing the voices to be completely gone to puzzle this out.

Five unconsciously smiles and tightens his arms around me.

I calm my speeding thoughts down before slowly making connections in my mind, giving myself time to completely understand it.

Five and I are fraternal twins.

That could explain a lot about our behavior with each other. Our odd mental link. Our shared quirks. Because we're extraordinary, it may explain the mental respite I get from our physical contact. Then why am I not able to read him? I'm still able to affect him, though... Maybe Hargreeves--

I'm suddenly pulled from my head by Five jerking violently. 

I run a hand along his arm, sending out calming energy to him, but he just jerks again, and the energy bounces off of him. I pull away gently, so as to see his face, only to find him looking terrified but still asleep. I place a hand on each of his cheeks and pull his face down towards me, kissing him on the forehead. 

"Hey, bub," I mumble into his skin. "You gotta wake up for me, okay?" I move one hand to rub his shoulder gently, but firmly.

I pull away, worried, as he jerks a third time, to see teary eyes open and search wildly.

"Where--!? When--?!"

I grab his hands as he scuttles away from me. "You are back home. We are at the Academy. It's 2019, and you're safe, Five. You're safe," 

I watch as he recognises me and my words, and the terrified look drops, washed away by tears and apologies.

He crawls back towards me, sobbing. I tuck him into my chest as he gasps out brokenly, "I-I'm so-sorry, I for...got, I ca-can't stop thin-th-thinking ab-bout, bout all of them..." He breaks down into tears completely, soaking my pajama shirt, but who gives a damn? (Spoiler: Not me.) I lay there with him and hold him tightly, letting him bawl his eyes out.

 

Now that tears have been reduced to sniffles and then to deep breaths, I feel it’s safe to speak.

"Wanna talk 'bout it?"

He shakes his head.

"Wanna go get breakfast?"

He nods now, and I can tell that he’s about to flash in and out. 

I grab his arm. "Don’t you dare. We are walking down there normally, getting food, socialising, and eating with whatever family there is." I feel my eyebrows crease up in the middle. "You can’t shut us out, Five. Especially not me."

"Then you can’t shut me out, either, then." He huffs our a laugh. "God, we’re a mess, aren’t we?"

I laugh with him, and he hugs me tightly.

"Thank you. For getting me through that."

"I mean, you got me through an attack last night, so it’s not really a big de-"

"Stop. Just take the compliment."

I smile a little. "Okay."

"Hey, by the way, why did you freak out last night?"

I sigh and lean back against the headboard. 

"In Hargreeves’ journal, he wrote that I have a twin. For some reason, my brain went into panic mode and my mirages went up."

"Why is that suddenly a part of panic mode?"

I shoot him a look heavy with meaning. "A lot happened while you were gone, Five." I continue with my previous story. "Anyway, I hunted through the journal until I found his original 'Acquisition List'," I use air quotes, "of us. It listed us, you and me, as twins, and that’s all I remember. But hey, at least it’s you and not some random that I’ve never even met."

"Yeah... I mean it’s pretty cool that we’re twins, but I mean, we’re still the same, right?"

I shrug and scoff playfully. "Of course!" I grin at him. "Now c’mon, Mom is already making banana pancakes for Diego and Klaus downstairs. We can probably still get some if we hurry."

He laughs as I throw open the door and tug him down the hall.

Five perks up as he smells coffee, making it easier for me to swing us around a corner, as he’s less reluctant. 

 

☂☂☂☂☂☂☂☂

 

As we enter the kitchen, all three people in it greet us with varying levels of enthusiasm.

"Hello, darlings!" Mom smiles brightly and hands us each a plate of banana pancakes.

"Hey, nerds," Diego grumbles before going back to scrolling through his phone.

"Feeling better?" Klaus asks as we sit down across from each other. 

We both shrug and Five answers with a half-hearted, "Sorta," as I pour syrup on my pancakes. 

Old habits coming back full force, I slide the bottle of syrup across the table and continue what he was saying without missing a beat. "We’re not Level A, but maybe Level C or D?"

Five shoots me a glance that tells me that maybe I’m incorrect about that, but I know that he won’t want to talk about that in public. 

Klaus hums as he sips his tea, making Five’s face light up at the thought of coffee. 

I roll my eyes but lean back in my chair and twist around, grabbing the pot of coffee from the maker. I pour a mug for Five before gently landing on the front legs of my chair.

God, I love extreme kinaethesia.

I hand him his coffee and he practically beams with happiness. 

Diego shoots Five a disdainful but concerned look. "You’ve smiles more in the past day and a half than I saw you smile in all thirteen years that you were here. Are you still Five?"

Five rolls his eyes at Diego.

"Yes, I am, Diego."

Klaus pipes up. "You just didn’t see happy Five before."

Five glares at Klaus without any real malice in his eyes. "Or maybe I just realised that life’s too short to be a douchebag to the people you love."

Diego shrugs and leaves to room, only pausing to deposit his dishes in the sink and kiss Mom on the cheek.

Mom hums and wanders out of the kitchen to go do something.

Five goes back to sipping his coffee and jumps away. He returns a few moments later, Hargreeves’ journal in his left hand and his mug still in his right, standing right behind me. He hums as if he’s intrigued by something, then slams the book closed dramatically, setting it down next to me.

"This is dangerous to have laying out. What do you want to do with it?" He leans on me, arms draped casually over my shoulders and head resting on top of mine.

"Why are you asking me?"

He shrugs, shaking us, "Its your find."

Klaus butts in. "Ummm... What is it?"

"Dad’s journal," we respond in unison.

"Daddy’s diary?"

Five and I roll our eyes but nod, confirming Klaus’s disbelief.

"Is this..." Klaus lowers his voice. "Is this what caused last night?"

I nod grimly at him.

"Can I read it?"

"I—"

"Once you’re done. I’m not gonna, like, read anything about you that you don’t even know about you." He gives me a half-hearted smile. "I know how you are about that."

He stands up and moves towards the stove to refill his tea.

I pushing a thought at Five, **'Should we tell him about us?'** Five glares at me, shaking his head imperceptibly.

I shoot him a 'C'mon!' look, throwing another thought his way, **'We gotta tell everyone eventually. I want to have someone else on our side.'**

Five sighs exasperatedly.

Klaus gives me a knowing look, understanding that we’re arguing mentally. He kisses the top of my head and waggles his fingers goodbye at me as he makes for the door.

I smile sadly. **'Plus, I like Klaus.'** I can’t lie. If I didn’t have Five, Klaus would be my best friend. Well, he was for a bit.

After Five was gone and Ben died, the two of us stuck together; I kept him away from the drugs as much as possible, and he kept me from going off the deep end.

Five pinches the bridge of his nose before calling out, "Wait, Klaus."

Klaus, who was barely out of the door, leans back into the doorway. "What’s popping?"

" ~~Y/n~~..." He sighs. "...and I," He adds grudgingly. "want to tell you something."

Klaus comes into the room, closing the door behind him. "What’s up, kiddos?"

"In Hargreeves’ journal he basically wrote down everything about us." I glance between my brothers before looking down at the table and continuing rambling. "So I was reading through mine and something in there sent me back to the beginning of the journal, where I found out that Five and I are fraternal twins."

"Okay."

Five blinks rapidly, as if attempting to process shocking information. "Okay?"

Klaus shrugs. "Yeah. If you guys are twins, the only thing that changes is that now you guys have to figure out what your twin power is. And I want in." He grins.

Five opens his mouth, and I can tell he’s about to tell Klaus to go away (or something less pleasant).

I force his mouth shut and push a thought at him. **'It will keep Klaus off the streets.'**

Five looks at me with a little bit of resentment, but with resigned acceptance. "Okay."

Klaus claps happily.

"But with one condition: you can’t tell the others about us."

"Deal!"

I nudge Klaus's knee to get his attention. "We’ll probably tell Vanya and..." I glance at Five. "...maybe Diego before we brave the Golden Children."

Five nods.

Klaus smiles tenderly at us, and I know that we’re going to be okay.


End file.
